It's a Wonderful World

To set up It's a Wonderful World, place the main board in the center and arrange all resource cubes (materials, energy, science, gold, and crystal) in their designated slots. Sort the general and financier tokens and place empire card decks nearby. Give each player a chosen empire card (Side A for beginners) along with their personal play area, which includes spaces for completed cards, draft piles, and construction zones. Set the round tracker to round one.

The main objective of It's a Wonderful World is to build the most prosperous and powerful futuristic empire over the course of four rounds. Players compete to construct various development cards—ranging from structures to vehicles—by carefully managing resources, optimizing production chains, and utilizing strategic drafting tactics to outscore their opponents.

Every round is divided into three distinct phases: Draft, Planning, and Production. During the Draft phase, players receive a hand of development cards, choose one to keep, and pass the rest to their neighbor until all cards are drafted. In the Planning phase, players decide whether to move drafted cards to their construction zone or recycle them immediately for resource bonuses. In the Production phase, players produce and distribute resources across five sequential steps, collect majority bonuses, and complete buildings.

Scoring happens at the end of the fourth round using a dedicated scoring pad. Points are accumulated from the base victory points on built empire and development cards, multiplied values from special set-collection cards, and bonus points earned from accumulated general and financier tokens. The player with the highest total wins.

The game concludes automatically at the end of the fourth round. After the final production phase and round marker update, players proceed directly to the comprehensive scoring step to calculate their final victory points and determine the ultimate winner.